Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott

2

Finn

The caretaker I’d been tracking had been in the room with Tessa and that waste of space human, I just knew it. The concentration of them in this area was unusual, but it might mean that the key was close. Now if I could only figure out what it looked like, I could get back to my own realm and not have to spend too much longer in this magic deprived one.

It wasn’t that I hated this realm, but I couldn’t swim, couldn’t just be. I had to be guarded at all times, ready to fight at all times. Looking for the key was our primary objective, yes, but we also had to be delicate around the caretakers. Ever since some assholes had started hunting for the key to the five realms to destroy it, the caretakers had been found murdered here and there.

Just the thought of it made my stomach turn. They were sacred to all of us, so to take their lives was one of the most heinous acts any of us could commit. Just down from that was becoming a distorted, which meant using dark magic to give up our bodies so we could travel to this realm illegally. The only people that did it were zealots who wanted destruction and control and were willing to kill to get it as they hunted for the key. If we traveled with the court’s permission, then we didn’t have to do anything like that, something I was more than a little grateful for. I couldn’t ever see any of us that trained to come to this realm becoming a distorted, at least not willingly.

I tried to reel my thoughts back in as we moved through the building, but being so close to seeing a caretaker and feeling like we were on the verge of finding the key was messing with my head. As I breathed in and out, I imagined the waves of my home rolling onto the shore and back out again, letting the mental image calm and refocus me.

The only thing I had to remember when doing an exercise like that was not to let my magic leak out and do crazy things while I was focused on breathing. The last thing we needed was someone seeing us using magic. My mind filled with the shame that would accompany being called back home because we fucked up and outed ourselves to humans. They were apparently fragile beings.

As the thought crossed my mind, I glanced at Tessa and caught the woman next to me looking at me from the corner of her eye, and not for the first time either. There was something unusual about her that not even her oversized black hoodie could hide, and it wasn’t just the way her eyes were two different colors. It was almost as if there was a haze around her, like heat coming off a fire.

“Thanks for stepping in back there and for walking me out,” she said, as I escorted her out of the building. Her voice wasn’t quite husky, but there was a roughness to it that made my mind a filthy place to be at that moment.

“You’re welcome. You sure you’re okay to get home from here?” I asked, not really wanting to leave her to walk alone in the night, even though she’d demonstrated, quite clearly, that she could take care of herself.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod.

Unease pooled in my stomach. Something was off tonight. At first, I’d thought it was just the caretaker being present on this side of the rift, but now I wondered if it was something more. “Listen, I know this is going to sound crazy, but will you text me when you get home? I’ve had a bad feeling all night, and I want to make sure you’re safe.”

She stopped and looked up at me. “Seriously?” The skepticism on her face hurt my heart. How many people had let her down for her to be so mistrusting?

“I don’t get these…feelings very often, but when I do, they are rarely wrong.”

“Okay.” She sighed and swung her backpack around, pulling a phone out from a side pocket.

After I rattled off my number, she gave me a little wave and walked away into the darkness. The unease that had settled in my stomach spread throughout my body, but if I followed her, then that would scare her even more. She’d had enough of guys acting creepy for one night.

I pulled my phone out and texted the guys to meet me at the local pizza place, which was really more like a bar than anything else. By the time I arrived, Dresden and Griffin were already stuffing pizza into their faces. I went up and ordered before grabbing a seat with my friends.

Most of the women in the place had their eyes glued to Griffin. Apparently, the man could even make eating pizza sexy. He had that natural blond hair, what they thought were blue eyes, and an athletic vibe going on, which seemed to be like catnip to these women. If only they knew that wasn’t what he really looked like. I grinned at that.

Did you find the caretaker?Dresden’s voice sounded in my head.

“No. Well, kind of? I followed the energy signature to a computer lab in the Honors College building. It wasn’t there when I got there, but I think some douchebag of a guy and the girl he was on the verge of assaulting scared it off.” Anger poured through me like one of the firefalls in Griff’s realm.

“She okay?” Griff asked as he looked up from the slice of pizza he was about to stuff in his mouth. He raised an eyebrow at me as I finished chewing my mouthful before I answered.

“Yeah. Although, she still hasn’t texted me that she’s home. Something didn’t feel right when I walked her out of the building.” I pulled the phone from my pocket and looked at the black screen, hoping it would light up any second.

“It’s probably just the excessive number of caretakers in the area. You know how that fucks with us,” Dres said aloud before taking a long pull of the dark liquid in his glass. The guy had a soft spot for sugary drinks that I just didn’t understand. They tasted like tar and chemicals to me.

“If she doesn’t text me, will you help me find her?” I asked Dres. He was the only one who really stood a chance in this realm since his psychic abilities weren’t based on magic, just naturally how beings evolved in his realm.

“Sure. Why are you so concerned though?” Dres’ deep brown eyes studied me as I tried to come up with an excuse. It wasn’t just because she was beautiful, I knew that, but I also didn’t know how to explain it.

“I don’t know. She had some creep trying to attack her, but she defended her own damn self, so I know I shouldn’t be worried. The caretaker was right there, though. Don’t you find that odd?”

Dres nodded. My watched buzzed, but it had been doing that all day. Thankfully, Kai had chosen that moment to show up, pizza and beer in hand. He was the only one out of the four of us that really enjoyed the alcohol in this realm.

“Hey, man, can you take a look at this thing? It’s been buzzing on and off all day today.” I unclasped what looked like a watch to most people but was actually a very sophisticated piece of tech, one that was leaps and bounds beyond what the humans of this world knew. With a few presses of hidden buttons, I could access all the data we needed on the caretakers’ last known locations and the frequency with which they’d been showing up. It was a project that Kai and I had worked on for a while.

I was a scientist through and through, even though it didn’t look like it. There was nothing I loved more than data, but sometimes, I needed help figuring out how to get it. That was where Kai came in. His people were known for their engineering prowess.

He took the watch from me and discreetly opened a few screens that projected onto the table in front of us so he could access the operating system. I tried to pay attention as he glided through screen after screen, but soon enough, I lost track of where he was and what he was doing.

“There’s nothing wrong with it. Everything is showing as normal,” Kai said as he quickly exited the menus and handed the watch back to me.

“It’s not doing it for no reason,” I grumbled. Surely there couldn’t be that many caretakers around, could there? I mean, they’d been slowly dying out before, and add in the ones we’d found murdered, there couldn’t be that many left. Not unless they’d been hiding for the last few years.

Kai quirked an eyebrow at me. “Have you considered that the data is accurate? We’ve been seeing an increase in caretaker appearances on this side of the rift for months now.”

“Today just seemed like so much more than normal,” I muttered.

“Want me to help you track ’em down?” Griffin asked. He was the warrior of our group, always looking for a fight. At least once a week, we had to drag him out of a bar because he’d started throwing punches. Our assignment wasn’t exactly fun for him. It was rare that we encountered any of the distorted, but when we did, he was our best weapon against them.

“No, it’s fine. I’m going to scout the last known location. Dres, can you help me find Tessa?” I asked before stuffing the rest of my pizza in my mouth. There was one thing I’d miss when all this was over, and it was the humans’ food. I could feel the slight bit of grease dripping down my chin, so I grabbed a napkin and wiped my face.

Dres just nodded.

“Who’s Tessa?” Kai asked around his mouthful of pizza.

“Some girl that got under Finn’s skin,” Griff joked. The way he glanced at me as he said it let me know that he wasn’t exactly kidding.

The problem was he was right.

To an extent.

I hadn’t given two shits about anyone in this realm other than my battle brothers since we arrived. Now suddenly, I cared about a random human woman getting home okay? Something was definitely off about this whole situation. I explained what had happened to Kai as briefly as possible.

“And you think this girl is somehow connected to the caretakers?” Kai asked before inhaling another slice of pizza. Sometimes, I wondered if we were a major chunk of this place’s business.

I nodded. As I finished up my slice of pizza and chugged the rest of the bottle of water, Dresden stood. Apparently, it was time the two of us headed out. “We’ll meet you guys back at the house. No fights, Griff. We can’t afford your bail right now,” Dres said. It was a warning I knew Griff would heed. After all, when a psychic told you not to do something, you tended to pay attention because there was usually a reason behind it.

The two of us set out, heading around campus in my nondescript sedan. It felt like we were moving at a snail’s pace, but human technology had only advanced so far. I followed the small navigation instructions from the watch until we were a few buildings over from where the caretaker had appeared earlier.

“I’ll look for the caretaker, you look for Tessa?”

“Picture her,” Dres commanded.

I obeyed and tried not to attach any emotion to my observations. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was sweet on the woman. There would be no living that down.

“Got it.” Dres headed off before I could respond, which was just as well, because my mind was starting to drift to those perfectly pouty lips and the freckles that lined her neck. I shook my head. The last thing I needed was to get a hard-on for an origin realm girl.

I followed the tracking app on my watch, and it took me around the corner to what looked like an apartment block. A purple flash had my eyes focused on the roof and tracing down to the window as the caretaker slipped inside. My feet were moving before I had even acknowledged what I was doing, pounding against the pavement as I rushed to the front, hoping for an unlocked door.

The fates must have been on our side in that moment, because a guy in running gear was just leaving the apartments and I was able to catch the door before it closed. The heavy metal and glass door smashed against my fingers as I shoved them between it and the equally sturdy metal frame. I paused and took a breath, listening for the telltale clatter of a caretaker’s claws.

I immediately regretted it, as the scent of fish and urine was strong in the hallway. Part of me knew that I shouldn’t be surprised, it was a college campus after all, and yet disgust rolled in my gut. Humans were so filthy sometimes.

A knock at my back had me spinning in place, readying myself to face an opponent. I caught myself before I did anything foolish, especially since the man standing on the other side of the door was all too familiar. I pushed it open for Dres, and he walked in, shaking something out of his hair. Moisture flicked off his dark locks and splattered across my skin, while his nose wrinkled at the smell that was probably assailing him by now. I wiped the moisture from my face. I’d been so focused that I hadn’t even noticed it was starting to rain.

You tracked it here?Dres asked silently, his voice echoing around my head. His talent had taken a long time to get used to, but I appreciated it more every time we ended up in a situation where we were trying to be as quiet as possible. It wasn’t a huge deal if we made noise now, but I needed to try and see what the caretaker was doing, why it was there, so I just nodded.

Interesting. I tracked the woman here too.

It was a coincidence I wasn’t all that comfortable with. Dres probably less so, but he was keeping his opinions to himself, at least for now. I pointed up and he just nodded, so the two of us silently moved down the hall. The stairs were even worse than the hallway, which I hadn’t thought possible. Stains covered the threadbare carpet, and there was enough buildup in the corners that I doubted if the cleaning staff had ever even done anything in the stairwells.

I led the way up to the top floor. Thankfully, the stench and the stains decreased as we went up. The air wasn’t exactly fresh, but it wasn’t burning my nose anymore either. I longed for the fresh pure air of my home, and for a moment, a wave of homesickness hit me so fully that I had to pause.

As we reached the top floor, I heard the sound I’d been searching for, and I also heard a woman yelling. A door cracked open down the hall, but no one came out, and just as quickly, it shut once more, almost like the person was having an internal debate about getting involved.

The door that the noise was coming from wasn’t completely latched, and I could see a sliver of light breaking through into the dim hallway. When the woman’s voice sounded again, I realized it was Tessa and my heart clenched.

“Get out!” Her shrill cry came from behind the door.

I surged forward and found myself stopped by Dres’ hands on my arms. This is her apartment, right? We need to wait and see if she’s talking to someone or to the caretaker.

A human shouldn’t be able to see it, so how could she talk to it?I responded.

That’s the question, isn’t it? If she can see it, she might be a distorted that’s trying to fly under the radar.

She wasn’t a distorted. I knew that as surely as I knew we weren’t in my home realm. The slight shimmer in the air around her rose in my mind, taunting me with the barest thread of uncertainty. When they had used up their human host, the body would burn up a fraction at a time until it hit a tipping point and went up in one final blaze of glory.

“This is your last warning, Brok. If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police. I’m dialing right now. Don’t make me do this.” Her voice was resigned but confident.

That’s the guy who attacked her before!I practically screamed at Dres, who winced in return.

The caretaker chose that moment to make itself known as it seemed to appear through the wall, a startled look on its face. Purple filaments danced around it like ribbons in a breeze, and I knew then and there that somehow, the caretakers were attracted to Tessa. Two in one night with the same person was way too much of a coincidence.

I looked at Dres, and I was sure my emotions were written all over my face. Whatever he saw there had him releasing my arms, and we both went hurtling toward the door. It swung open and revealed Brok cornering Tessa. He glanced over his shoulder at us, and that was when I saw it—he was a distorted.